Herido Addams
by TaleCaster
Summary: Part 1 of my Herido Addams story. Harry Potter is adopted by the Addams Family. The symbol of light taken by the darkest family known to wizard kind. The wizarding world really should take better care of it's saviours! Dark!Harry
1. Chapter 1

The sudden crack of swirling wind and dust went unnoticed by the few people out on Privet Drive. It was a clear, mild Sunday – perfectly normal and peaceful and calm. A pair of teenagers whizzed by on their bikes, and a middle aged man in a grey cardigan walked his pedigree golden retriever at a leisurely pace. No, nobody noticed the disturbance, nor the couple that had appeared in the middle of the mini storm. The couple looked shockingly out of place. With unnaturally pale skin, the woman stood in a skin tight black dress that seemed to melt into the road beneath her and long lace arms that gently brushed the tarmac. Seemingly attached to her right arm, by his lips mind you, was a smart looking man in with a pencil moustache in a pin striped suit.

"Oh Tish, intercontinental travel always gets my blood pumping."

"The child first, Gomez. Pumping later." Morticia answered her husband with a knowing smile that made him want to get on with the job they were here to do. The sooner they finished up here, the sooner they could go home!

"You're absolutely right, querida. Where were we?" They finally tore their gaze from each other to take in their surroundings. Gomez' countenance fell into putrid distaste and Morticia appeared mildly horrified. "Querida Mia." He breathed out.

"I see it, Gomez! A never ending cycle of bleached, cookie cut mediocrity. How could anything so precious to Infernus be found in… in such a place as this?" She was deeply disturbed that a child of the dark had been left here. But this was definitely the place Grandmamma had scried and she was not one to question the Powers. And so they set off down the road, careful not to touch the flowers, the pristine fences, the… well anything.

* * *

Behind the unassuming walls of number 4, Privet Drive, down the hall and enveloped deep in the darkness of the cupboard under the stairs sat a small child, knees to chest and shaking. But he didn't know why. He'd acted without thinking but he wasn't sure how he felt about it now. Not ten minutes earlier the five year old had been home alone with his great whale of an uncle. He'd been minding his own business, cleaning the dishes from that morning's breakfast when he'd dropped the serving tray – shattering the peace and bringing his uncle down on him in a rage that defied logic. The man had stomped into the kitchen, yelling about freaks being useless. Then there was pain. Then there was a knife in little Harry's hand. Then there was screaming and blood.

And the blood had been divine.

It was so bright against the white floor tiles and so warm as it gushed across his hand. The way his uncle screamed and the ease with which the knife had slid into his gut made the little boy feel powerful. Yet even in this state of mind he knew that there would be hell to pay once his uncle got back to his feet.

And so Harry had made the decision to strike again and again. The beautiful crimson soaked the floor and the baggy rags that hung off Harry's slight frame. It was long after his uncle had stopped screaming that reality started to seep into Harry's mind like the Devil's chord being played louder and louder directly into his skull. He dropped the knife and ran back to the only place he knew to go to: his cupboard.

At first he had been terrified - terrified that his uncle Vernon was coming to punish him. But he'd seen bits and pieces of the police shows his aunt liked to watch. He knew that when there was that much blood, when the body had stopped responding to the trauma… He didn't think his uncle was getting back up.

And so he was left shaking in the dark. He didn't know whether he was shaking from fear, from adrenaline or from relief. He couldn't think much of anything beyond the rushing sound of his own blood in his ears. He couldn't think about what would happen once his aunt Petunia got home. He couldn't think about how much trouble he would be in and about what would happen to him now. He couldn't even comprehend what it meant that he could hear people opening the locked front door and letting themselves in. He just knew he had to stay quiet and stay hidden.

Morticia and Gomez shuddered as they entered the house. It smelt overly of chemical lemon. It was really no place for a child and they were suddenly filled with gratitude at being tasked with saving one from such a place. Morticia stopped in the hallway, glancing down at the trail of blood leading to the cupboard under the stairs and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in concentration even as her husband expounded excitedly about a marvellous murder in the kitchen. Her eyes snapped open, cold and unyielding.

"Gomez darling, no magic. I'll deal with the wards." She glanced once more at the little door. "And I think we should let him come to us."

"But he's done such a wonderful job! Well, for a first time at least." Gomez called, but his wife was already in the front yard, so he sighed, placed his cigar in his mouth and got to work.

The part of Harry's brain that was still responding to external stimuli thought it odd that these people sounded so unconcerned, maybe even cheery. In the shows his aunt watched people screamed and got upset and called police and doctors. And then there were those words: 'no magic'. Harry knew his relatives hated anything to do with fantasy and magic, but the other adults he'd met didn't seem to give it any thought at all. And he knew that magic wasn't real, no matter how likely it seemed to be sometimes, so why would she even mention it? Curiosity gripped him and through a haze he inched forwards, out of his cupboard as silently as he could and crawled, low to the floor as though it might make him invisible, to the kitchen.

He watched as a man with a wide grin and almost manic eyes, gripped a cleaver from midair and hummed a pleasant tune whilst swinging it down the quarter his uncle. Reality now hit Harry like ice water to the face, but as his young mind raced to try and process the situation he suddenly couldn't make his body move at all. He was afraid, repulsed, but he couldn't look away. Then the man turned to him.

"Well hello there! You must be our little killer!" The man enthused, never losing that grin. Harry blinked.

Outside, Morticia sat on the grass in the only position her dress would allow. It seemed dreadfully uncomfortable but she didn't flinch. She stared ahead, took a knife and ran all her fingers and thumbs along the blade before setting her bloody digits to work in what looked like and invisible game of cat's cradle.

Arabella Figg stood across the street, watching the strange woman on the lawn. Something seemed very off about her, but there was always the chance the witch had been sent to maintain the wards, and that she was therefore worrying about nothing.

Still, she should probably mail Albus, just in case. As that thought entered her head, the dark haired woman's eyes snapped up.

Morticia studied the woman as she continued her work. She couldn't sense any magic emanating from her, but that fact that the woman could see her spoke for itself: a squib then. Her hands paused. It wouldn't do to divert her attention from manipulating the wards at this stage, but letting this unknown woman run off wasn't an option either. Thankfully, the woman seemed to take her eye contact as some form of invitation and tentatively made her way towards number 4. As soon as she was within range and still holding eye contact, Morticia had her. She opened her mouth to speak, but Morticia interrupted

"Wait your turn. Sit down." The woman immediately dropped to the grass and sat in silence. Morticia had used an altogether more sharp tone than she was used to, but it had occurred to her that if this woman was a squib, she knew about the child in this house, and therefore it was likely that she knew of the child's suffering.

Trying to set her sudden rage aside, to unleash at a more opportune time, Morticia returned to the wards.

After some time she sensed her husband walking up behind her and thought it a good place to stop.

She turned to him and was relieved to see the young child in his arms. Not only was it a good sign that they had the child's trust, at least a little, but it would also make her task that much easier. She stayed on the ground, but held out her hands for the child.

"Hello, darling." Harry felt instantly more at ease with the beautifully haunting tone of the greeting and he curled slightly into this new, strange woman. She felt safe.

Gomez looked at the scene with a pride he couldn't rationalise. He puffed on his cigar.

"Querida, why don't you take the boy home to get settled once you've finished here. Send Fester over and we'll make a night of it." He sounded far too happy about a little clean up job.

"Of course." She was ever indulgent. As he walked back into the house, gently taking the women who smelled like cats by the arm and leading her along with him, Morticia smiled. "Men."


	2. Chapter 2

Nausea. Sickness. It consumed Harry until he couldn't hold it in any longer. He jumped away from the mystery woman and vomited quite violently across the dark wooden floors. It felt like he was expelling the mental sludge that had been weighing him down over the last hour. But mostly it was stomach acid.

"That's it, little Viper. Very good." That haunting melody comforted Harry as he continued to dry heave. The woman had told him she was going to do something that would seem unpleasant... She'd certainly delivered on that promise.

Finally, he was able to straighten up and take a look around. They had moved in that awful instant. Travelled somehow. He was stood in a grand entrance hall, before a wide staircase that branched off in both directions. Everything seemed to be made out of rich, dark woods and was decorated with the most interesting if not gruesome things.

The thing that most caught his attention however was something he couldn't see: He felt almost overwhelmed by a feeling he had felt before – if only by a miniscule amount. The very house itself seemed to radiate power and he knew, deep down, after everything that had happened today, he knew this place was magical. His lips pulled into the smallest smile and he looked back to the woman. He was ready. He didn't know what for, but he knew he was ready.

"Come, little one." He took the woman's hand and let her lead him into a large parlour room off the hallway. This room too seemed dreary and oddly comforting after the clinical harshness of his aunt's home. He was pulled onto the woman's lap and he turned to face her.

"Now, I'm sure you have many questions and I do hope you aren't usually this quiet." She smiled and he wanted to smile back. "My name is Morticia and I was hoping that we could become your new family – that I could be your mother. Would you like that, Harry?" Harry felt as though a huge air bubble was about to explode from his chest. This is what he had always wanted; someone to take him away and give him a family. And this woman felt so safe to him. She had come along after he had done something awful and had helped him, saved him and was now offering him a home. He felt like he would burst with happiness and slowly a wide smile twisted on his face.

"No." He replied quietly. The woman looked honestly heartbroken. He thought maybe he had blown his chance and she'd changed her mind, so he carried on quickly, hoping to change it back. He so wanted this woman to love him. "I mean yes! I want you to be my mother. I do! But I don't want to be Harry anymore. Harry is no one, he's sad and afraid and alone and I don't want to be him anymore." Morticia smiled and placed a finger to his lips to stop his desperate spiel. His eyes were full of unshed tears. He hated to cry. It was a luxury he couldn't afford.

"Oh, little Viper. In this family you will never be alone again. Although it will be up to you to decide if you want to be sad or afraid. After all, what's life without a little peril and angst?" He didn't understand her words, but he understood that she was accepting him into her family and that she would make it better. He sucked in a shuddering breath. "If you'll have us, we'll make you a part of this family – it'll be like you were born into it. The man you met before was my husband, your new father, Gomez, and we have two other children that we'll introduce you to. I'm sure you're overwhelmed but…" She appeared to pause to think about something, but decided to proceed anyway. He could probably take it. Trauma builds character after all.

Harry's eyes widened as she reached up into empty air, as a silvery thread appeared. She pulled it and a slightly malicious gleam caught her eye. He found it warming. A gong sounded throughout the house as though from a great distance and carried on the wind.

"You can change your name if you wish to, but you should know that it's just a name. You are still you and it's you, Harry Potter that I am making my son." Again he felt a little lost but also felt he knew what she was saying. She was accepting him for who he was – never mind the name. Still, Harry just carried too many hurtful emotions.

"I understand," He looked down shyly and added "mother." He felt giddy saying that word and he was sure she would feel his heart beating. "But I don't like Harry. The name." He clarified in the hope that he could be rid of it. As they spoke, the tallest, strangest looking man Harry had ever seen walked into the room and waited quietly - Morticia paid him no mind and just continued to smile at Harry.

"I'm not fond of it myself." She nodded. "What would you like your name to be?" At the lost look on his face she carried on. "Actually, it's the parents who name their children, so once Gomez comes home we'll decide on a new name for you, and you'll just have to live with it." Harry bit his lip and nodded, excited and nervous. Morticia finally acknowledged the tall man, but didn't take her eyes off Harry. "Lurch, gather the family immediately, have the elves wait outside."

"Yes, Mrs Addams." The reply came out as a groan and Harry watched the man retreat. He must be a servant then.

In the few minutes it took to gather the family, Morticia told Harry about magic, that his parents were magical and that they were killed by someone else who was magical.

Wizards and witches.

Harry's head was spinning again. Maybe he was crazy like that man in town who shouted about the end of the world at everyone who walked by. Harry just continued to blink until Morticia looked up, at which point he followed her line of sight to find the room full of strangers. He hadn't even noticed anyone come in.

There was an elderly woman who looked every bit her age and sent the word 'witch' bouncing around his mind; a bald man who looked rather dangerous to Harry; a small boy a little older than him with… a dismembered hand strumming excitedly on his shoulder... and finally the tall servant carrying a younger girl with hair as dark as her mother's and just as pale. The girl was placed on the sofa and glared at Morticia with a pout.

"I was sleeping!" She accused. Morticia ran a hand through the black locks.

"Now, now, Wednesday. I want you to meet your new brother." Wednesday's eyes narrowed as she took in the new arrival.

"I don't need a brother, I already have one!" She insisted in a manner that belied her young age.

"Oh but two brother's will be much more fun to play with." She said in a tone that made a Harry a little discomforted. She turned to him. "Harry, this is your sister, Wednesday." He smiled at her, but she continued to glare. Morticia turned to introduce the others. "That's your brother, Pugsley – he's a few years older than you. On his shoulder is Thing, he's very helpful and practically a member of the family. This is uncle Fester, your father's brother and this is your grandmamma. Lurch is our dear butler. He's an Addams too – in parts." With introductions said all the new family members rushed Harry, asking questions, wanting to pet him. It was disconcerting. What were entrails and why was the old lady… his grandmamma… asking what colour his were? Why was the little girl so concerned about his height and why was she chuntering about digging MORE graves? He didn't know what dynamite caps were, but he couldn't wait for the present his uncle said he'd give him! A present!

After what felt like forever, his new mother finally intervened.

"Ok, that's enough everyone. Fester, if you have nothing better planned, Gomez is waiting for you in England to help with a dismemberment. Lurch, put Wednesday and Pugsley back to bed and the send the elves in. Mamma, I need your expertise in blood adoption. Goodnight, my darling children." The women clearly knew how to run her household, and everyone moved to obey, although Pugsley moaned about being wide awake and Wednesday was already half asleep.

Harry himself was starting to feel very tired, even though it couldn't be evening yet. Wait, did she say Gomez was waiting in England?

"Where are we?" He asked suddenly, interrupting a conversation between his mother and grandmamma.

"America, darling. We do have distant cousins in England, but we don't want to introduce you until after the adoption. Ah, here are the elves." Harry turned to look at the most peculiar things he had seen yet in this house. Creatures the size of small children, only badly aged, with large hands and feet, bright eyes the size of tennis balls and large floppy ears. They were all wearing matching tunics of black with a silver coat of arms on their breast. Harry decided it was definitely bed time.

"These are our house elves. House elves work for witches and wizards such as ourselves and will help with anything they're told to. Tilly here" green eyes stepped forward "will be your personal elf, so if you ever need anything just call her and she'll come." Harry honestly didn't know what to say.

"I'm tired." He blurted out. Thankfully, his new mother just smiled and stood with him. Leading him up the stairs and along corridors that he couldn't remember - he was asleep before they reached a bed.

* * *

Harry woke in a stiff bed, covered with expensive, thick blankets and in a room bigger than any at his uncle's – his former uncle's – house. It was in the same dreary style as the rest of the house and if he could, he would've appreciated it. However his attention was taken by the fact that HIS FORMER UNCLE was leaning over him, a frightful shade of purple that meant he was in serious trouble.

Harry immediately started to apologise as he curled into himself and started to shake. He should have known uncle Vernon would find him. He tried to cover his ears as Vernon ranted at him, and he closed his eyes tight. That is, until he heard Gomez' cheerful yet strong voice dominate his uncle.

"That's enough of that! Away with you!" Suddenly his uncle, former uncle, flew off him and seemed to disappear. Harry looked, still shaking as his new father sat beside him on the bed. "Don't worry little man. That was merely a boggart. They look mean but they are as harmless as Kitty Cat."

Harry sat up, still shaking lightly, and decided in his young mind that he would trust this man. He had after all made Vernon go away – possibly twice. Harry nodded to the man. He just couldn't decide whether this was all a dream or a nightmare. Either way it was exciting.

He was taken down to breakfast, where he found himself so hungry that he didn't even question that fact that his food was trying to squirm its way off his plate. He just ate. And enjoyed it immensely.

During the breakfast he got to know his new siblings a little and thought he'd grow to love them greatly. Wednesday threw her steak knife at him, but she was too slow in aiming and he ducked as it went past him. Pugsley tried to pour something bright green into his dish, but when Harry asked uncle Fester what it was, and he replied that it was probably just some childish poison, he decided it was ok and that he would try it: He was immune after a day, but sick for a week.

* * *

33 days later, Albus Dumbledore, Grand Sorcerer, Leader of the Light and respected Headmaster, woke with a start as a shriek ripped through his office and into his bedroom. Apparently Fawkes was deeply unhappy. He raced into the office in time to see his phoenix flame away, and was faced with the blindingly bright blinking of a small silver trinket, humming its own high pitched siren and vibrating its way off the shelf, amid other trinkets that were broken or far too quiet for his liking. As the silver object fell to the floor it too went silent.

Albus felt his blood run cold. The wards at Number 4, Privet Drive had fallen, and if his tracking charms could be trusted, Harry Potter was dead.

* * *

 **Ok, so this chapter felt a little superfluous to me, but I wanted to add a chapter to show the Harry's break from 'Harry Potter' and the fact that he is going to be as creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky as any Addams, but not outright insane. :) He has cracked enough to embrace and be embraced by this dangerously (deliciously) dark family, but at this point is still just a 5 year old child.**

 **Also I introduced Harry to his past as a by the by, because we all know that story. xx**


	3. Chapter 3

At seven years old, Herido stood frowning at the dart in his hand. He'd been playing with bigger, better, sharper, deadlier toys for years now, but his father was insisting that the children learn to throw darts.

"Now Herido, I've told you: you have to learn how to throw the simple things before moving on to the more exotic weapons." Gomez said as he threw the dart straight at Heri's head, as if to drive his point home. Heri simply batted it away with a hand and scowled.

"But I can already throw, father. I killed that Malaclaw with a kunai last year!"

"But you were aiming for Pugsley." Wednesday laughed dryly as she threw her dart. It landed true – dead centre of the dart board her elf was holding. Wednesday had a natural talent for weaponry that Heri could only dream of.

"And you shouldn't be proud of that. Your uncle Fester was looking forward to the bad luck that Malaclaw would bring him." Gomez paused mid aim. "Although, it did provide a wonderful meal. Ah well."

Pugsley snickered and lined up his own arrow. He was a good shot too – having a few years on him, so Heri really did need to practice. He hadn't been allowed to learn at the same time as Pugsley. Wednesday was starting her lessons with Heri, because she was special in her own way. When Gomez had refused to teach her Kung Fu at the same rate as her brothers, she'd taken to teaching herself and after she'd put three seniors at school into hospital, Gomez had agreed she was advanced enough to learn with the boys. One of those seniors was still in a coma. Pugsley may have been 10, and they had their fair share of witches and wizards visiting, but Heri knew that if anyone in this house would kill him, it would be Wednesday. He was glad she was here so that he could learn and prepare for her technique.

With that thought in mind he lined up his dart and threw. Tilly moved her board so that his dart also hit the bullseye. Gomez tsked with an amused grin.

"Now, now, Tilly. How is Herido ever going to learn how to correct his aim of you move the board like that?" There didn't seem to be anything malicious in his tone, but the elf quickly brought the board back to hold up in front of her face and after but a moment of silence she yanked out dart and slammed it straight down into her thigh – at the exact place it would have hit had she not moved.

Heri took up another dart and listened as his father corrected his posture and aim. His parents were insistent on the children learning the physical arts. They claimed that it would give them a head start for when they could start using their magic. They said that most magical beings relied too heavily on their magic and forgot that magic was merely another part of them, like their mind and muscles and that to truly be the best, all these things had to compliment and work in harmony with each other. Heri couldn't learn magic until he was nine years old. The type of magic practiced by the Addams' was old and powerful and therefore highly dangerous if misapplied, and the magical core of a child under nine was apparently just not stable enough.

Heri had changed a great deal over the last two years. Gone was the timid child that had lashed out. Heri was in control now and he loved it. Gomez and Morticia wanted their children to be strong and it was still comforting to know that someone wanted the best for him, even if their methods and family dysfunction would see authority figures try (and they had tried), to take the children away faster than you could say 'endangerment'. Heri could acknowledge now how euphoric he'd felt when he killed Vernon Dursley. How he'd gotten lost in the moment and how much he wanted to keep stabbing, to keep going because he didn't want Vernon to hurt him again and because he just plain wanted him gone. He was glad that he was the one to do it, and he didn't feel an ounce guilty. After all no one got away with trying to subdue an Addams.

The day after he'd arrived in America had been a blur. His young, only partially developed reasoning skills had taken a while to slot everything that he'd been told into something resembling sense. Once it did he couldn't stop smiling. Morticia recalled fondly that it had been a particularly nasty, smug smile, like he knew he had the whole world at his feet and quite enjoyed it. A heart-warming smile to see on a five year old, Morticia had said.

That night they had performed a blood ritual, they rarely performed any other kind, to adopt Harry Potter into House Addams.

It had been painful to say the least. Both physically and psychologically.

It had involved Harry drinking a potion that tasted like bread mould and strawberry liquorice and contained the blood of his new parents. There had been sacrifices – wizard sacrifices – of the same age and gender as the members of his new immediate family. They had explained to Harry the seriousness of this ritual – that even they were loath to sacrifice wizards (as apparently they just weren't as plentiful as muggles), and they never killed underage beings unless it was necessary. But they had also assured him that family was more important than anything and that they were happy to perform this ritual in order for him to join their family. Three year old Wednesday had simply watched in rapt fascination.

Harry sat in the middle of the ritual circle after it had been completed. For several moments it seemed that nothing was going to happen. And then the pain started. At seven years old, he could no longer remember the pain, but he could remember the sound of his own screams and the feel of his head, arms and legs slamming repeatedly to the floor as he tried to ease it. He remembered the fond smiles of his parents as they watched him writhe until he had passed out.

After the adoption his name had been changed to Herido, to honour the fact that Heri had come to them broken and he would always be an injured man – the walking wounded. His hair had become even darker and slightly tamer. He had grown a little and inherited his father's more Addams features, with his mother's pale complexion and almost unnatural grace. Official documentation was arranged to acknowledge him as a legal, born Addams in both magic and muggle America. It seemed to Harry that money could accomplish almost as much as magic. And ah, magic! How Heri loved magic. It was all the little things that he often forgot about that he had appreciated the most, like seeing Morticia light candles with her hands, or how his father would bowl a ball down a corridor in the opposite direction to the pins, only for it to come barrelling down the stairs five minutes later and hit a strike. He loved finding new strange and terrifying creatures lurking about the house. He never asked why they all seemed to fear his parents so. He wanted to figure it out himself, so he just took care when exploring the house. The house itself seemed to be almost sentient and completely indestructible, even though it looked from the outside that a mild wind would tear it down.

He thought that if he accomplished nothing in his life, he would be happy to just stay here, learning and enjoying being with his family. He guessed that was why no adult in the family seemed to work.

* * *

Meal times where usually spent talking about the trials, tribulations, chaos and mayhem that the day had delivered. There had been a rule of no fighting at the dinner table, although this rule went out the window about two months prior, when the temptation of being surrounded by so many sharp, wicked looking utensils became too much for the children, all of whom had developed a fondness for ninja style projectiles after they became addicted to violent Japanese anime and film.

One evening, as the family was enjoying a lukewarm meal of live bugs and half-digested toad in a caramelised snake skin, Heri was bemoaning that the bogeyman in his closet had stopped trying to kill him in his sleep.

Morticia noticed a gleam in her daughter's eye and motioned behind him.

"Isn't that him now?" She asked as though thoroughly confused. Heri turned to look and heard the light hiss of an airborne dart. As he spun back to the table he let go of a senbon, spearing the dart that Wednesday had thrown to the large joint of meat in the middle of the table.

"Thank you for the seasoning, imouto _chan,"_ He said, just to annoy her. "You're always so thoughtful." He added as he watched the poisoned tip of the dart begin bubbling its way through the meat.

Pugsley used this time to fire a bright purple spell towards Heri's head, but he'd seen the move coming and grabbed the meat platter, sending the joint flying into the air and reflecting the spell straight back at Pugsley, who promptly passed out from a violent, bloody cough. Heri watched as the joint made its decent, only to be intercepted by Gomez' carving knife, which expertly cut and delivered a few slices to everyone's plate before it could land on the repositioned platter.

"He's right, Wednesday. This is great!" Gomez said as he took a bite.

Herido had won the great battle of dinner, but Wednesday had been so cross that he hadn't died that he'd had to agree to let her electrocute him before bed. He took his job of older brother very seriously. He'd send the bogeyman to her tonight, just to make sure she slept frightfully.


	4. Chapter 4

In Heri's eighth year it was time for Pugsley to begin his official magical education. His siblings thought it unfair that he got to start his game earlier than them. Years ago they had agreed that once they were independent and away at school they would play a game involving how much mayhem they could get away with and who could make the biggest statement. Rules were none existent, as long as they did the family proud. Pugsley had a natural talent for chaos that gave him an edge as far as expulsions went. Wednesday and Heri were just too thoughtful and had remained in the same school since infancy (Although the school building had, had to be rebuilt several times – funds provided by the Addams of course). But Heri had them on murder, having started so young. Though he never again wasted a death the way he had Vernon Dursley's.

Pugsley had been invited to Ilvermorny, as was usual for wizards in the area. Heri, himself couldn't wait to attend, what with its connection to the great and interesting Gormlaith Gaunt and his own interest in that particular family line. The fact that it was located near a town called Adams just seemed like fate, although the Addams' would never wish to claim connection the Adams'. The thought was just too frightful.

Wednesday wanted to attend Mahoutokoro and simply couldn't wait to acquire her white robes and then try to prevent them from showing as white. It was too big a challenge for her to pass up, and she so longed to find someone to teach her the 'old ways' of Japan. They did have a small distant branch of relations there, but that would be cheating.

In all honesty, Heri just couldn't wait to be around so many other magical beings. The Addams adults attended the amount of social functions expected of a family as old and revered as theirs, but the Addams children were rarely seen. Morticia and Gomez did not want their children to be exposed to strange thoughts and ideas before they were old enough to know better. It was the reason they had to attend muggle school. Well, that and it seemed prudent to learn the ways of muggles. After all, the Addams Family was usually (even reluctantly), respected among Wizardkind, but Muggles were a completely different kettle of strange, exotic fish.

Heri and Wednesday thought they were doing very well at fitting in with the muggles at school. Of course, they had no friends, only ever associated with each other outside of class and generally disturbed their teachers to the point of writing to their parents every other week, but really it was a concern to their parents just how well they were doing.

The three children would be the first Addams in centuries to attend public Wizarding School and although Gomez especially wasn't happy about sending his children away, both parents couldn't deny that the signs seemed to indicate an oncoming age of great darkness, and they wouldn't deny their children the opportunity to be in the middle of it.

One afternoon Lurch delivered the children home and Wednesday had been given a Star Pupil of the Week certificate for her efforts in science. Their parents had been instantly worried. Where had they gone wrong?

Heri knew that Wednesday was about to be in serious trouble and so decided to intervene – only he and Pugsley could get Wednesday into trouble, not some well-meaning muggle teacher who thought praise might encourage Wednesday to behave and work hard!

Just as Morticia was about to start questioning Wednesday about her certificate, he stepped forward.

"Mother, I know Wednesday is misbehaving in science, but I'm struggling in French. If you misunderstand someone how can you ask what they said?"

"Qu'est-ce que vous avez dit?" Morticia responded automatically.

"Tish! That's French!"

The desired effect was immediate: Gomez latched onto Morticia like a man possessed and within minutes Morticia could be heard moaning as they made their way up the stairs.

Wednesday smiled at Heri:

"Works every time!" she said as they made their way to the playroom.

Later that night, around 1am, Heri and Wednesday sat on the roof sharing a cigarette. They had been trying to quit since they were both 5 years old, but couldn't decide whether they loved the toxic fumes or hated how dependent on them they felt.

"What is it that has you performing so well in science class?" Heri finally decided to broach the subject. He wanted to know if there was a problem. Wednesday glared at him.

"I just understand how helpful the muggle understanding of science can be in developing spells." She replied and Heri beamed with pride; after all what other six year old could be so wise and intuitive. Most spells worked on manipulating the natural order, so knowing how things were meant to work was a necessity if you wanted to create your own spells and not merely copy other peoples'. Muggles didn't have the same scope of knowledge that wizards did, but what they did know was often overlooked by magical folk in favour of learning established wizarding spells, and so they were ignorant of many things that muggles took for granted.

"Well," Heri began, not wanting to discourage his sister, "maybe you could cause a little explosion or chaos during a couple of theory lessons, just to make sure they don't get the wrong idea." Wednesday just gave him that look that told him she thought he was an idiot and had already discerned what he was saying.

To be fair to her, over the course of the last few years, each of the Addams children had developed a passion for experimentation, and Wednesday was probably the most gifted in this field. She was currently trying to develop a way of making grass feel pain, and was determined that she would be able to animate her dolls by the time she was eleven. Heri was inclined to believe it. He could just imagine her army of small demented dolls spreading fear throughout her new school. It was an interesting idea.

Pugsley took after uncle Fester, and it was probably a good thing that he had gone away to school this year. He'd taken the house's durability as a personal challenge and was working on infusing muggle explosives with his own destructive magic in an attempt to breach the outer walls. He hadn't succeeded yet, but Heri thought it was just a matter of time.

Heri's own area of experimentation had been rather narrow ever since his parents had told him about what lay within his scar.

A piece of Voldemort's soul! Grandmamma had discovered it the day after his adoption. His parents thought it would be wrong to take from him something so dark and unnatural without giving him a choice in the matter, and had therefore decided to leave it be until Heri was old enough to make up his own mind.

Pugsley was jealous that Heri had such a gruesome and prominent curse scar, and Wednesday was jealous that he basically already owned someone's soul – if only in part – without even trying. It was like he'd been given a freebee!

Heri was delighted to have a piece of Voldemort's soul and couldn't see himself wanting to be rid of it any time soon. He was utterly fascinated by the man. It wasn't often that you came across a man powerful, charismatic and ruthless enough to change an entire country and make its citizens afraid to even speak his name!

So far Heri had only been able to vaguely sense the magic and essence of the soul. It was wild and destructive and angry – like a raging storm. It was beautiful. He couldn't interpret what it meant though and didn't want to ask anyone else to help him. This just felt so intimate and personal that he didn't want to share it. He couldn't decide whether what he felt was representative of Voldemort's actual essence or if it simply reflected his current state of being or welfare. He obviously knew that Voldemort wasn't dead, the way the people of the United Kingdom seemed to believe, but given how peaceful the UK had been for the last several years, it would seem that he was incapacitated or at the very least distracted. Heri longed to know what happened that Halloween night so many years ago. He was sure he hadn't done anything to the powerful wizard, but everyone seemed insistent that he had vanquished him.

Heri rubbed his scar to alleviate his building headache. He didn't dare prod the soul more directly, because, as fun as it would be to be possessed, he still had things he wanted to do. He knew it would be some years yet before he could practice Occlumency to a sufficient level and just had to be patient.

A few months back, Heri had discovered he had the ability to talk to snakes, another thing much envied by his siblings and after researching the Addams, Frump, Potter and Evans family lines, he'd come to the conclusion that it was most likely a side effect from Voldemort's soul, as he was the last man known to speak Parseltongue so it simply couldn't be coincidence.

One day he had come across Grandmamma levitating an Eastern Coral Snake toward the kitchen. It had taken him a few moments to realise that the indignant protests had been coming from said snake, and had immediately halted her progress in order to investigate. By the end of the day Herido had a new pet snake and dinner had changed to aged beef.

"Heri," Wednesday brought him out of his reminiscing, looking him straight in the eye. "What's it like to kill someone?" Herido smiled fondly at his little sister, which Wednesday returned with a scowl.

"It's the ugliest thing in the world." He breathed out. "You think at first you're just shutting down the biological systems of a body, but it's so much more than that. You're stealing a life, time, dreams, promises, potentials, love and so much more. And you're not only extinguishing that light from the victim, but taking it away from all the people they affected and from the World itself. There is no greater or more precious thing to sacrifice on this Earth." He glanced up as he finished his musings and was greeted with one of her rare, but beautifully breath-taking smiles.

"And that's why our magic is so powerful." She stated. The wind seemed to pick up as she spoke and whipped around the two fiercely. A fork of lightning brightened the sky for an instant and highlighted their swamp. Heri let out a breath of appreciation for everything he had and the beauty he was blessed to be surrounded by.

He stood, taking Wednesday's hand to lead them back inside – it would likely start raining soon and he should probably call in Kitty Cat and uncle Fester. He paused just inside as lightning struck once again and lit the dim hallways. He raised his sister's palm and gently drew a circle on it with his fingertip.

"In a way, dear sister. But blood in your hand, though precious, is just blood in your hand. You have to know how to use it." She pulled her hand back down, but didn't let go of his as they continued down the hall.

"I can't wait to learn." She said finally.

"Me neither." He agreed with a grin.

* * *

Nobody could say that the Addams Family wasn't hard working. Sure, none of them worked, but whether they were studying, playing, partying, torturing or relaxing, they did it with everything they had. Life and death were so profound and prominent in the household, that every action and sensation, whether good or bad, was cherished and savoured.

This had the fortunate side effect that Herido and Wednesday could often be seen tired and a little grouchy. They had so much to do after all: muggle school; physical arts lessons with Gomez; music, art, plant and animal care lessons with Morticia; Potions and alchemy lessons with Grandmamma; lessons of explosive and psychological disorder with uncle Fester; and history of the Addams Family lessons with cousin Itt; practicing the things learnt; playing with each other and the victims in the dungeon; working on their own side projects, taking care of their pets and learning a dozen different languages from everyone in the house. Really, sleep was always at the bottom of the list of things they wanted to do.

All of which could explain their heightened annoyance and slightly hasty actions one day in June.

The bright sun and heat of the day wasn't helping, nor was the little girl who had approached the siblings at lunch. School had been a little calm this year, what with Pugsley gone and their classmates generally either afraid or disgusted by the remaining Addams'; they had been pretty much left alone.

And yet here stood a little girl from Wednesday's class. She had blonde pigtails and dimples and Herido kept a cautious eye on her as she attacked Wednesday verbally, noticing a small group of children watching with glee. He wouldn't dream of interfering with his sister's fun, but you never knew when you'd need to remember a face.

Then he heard the attacks move to his family.

"…in fact your whole family is such a bunch of freaks and goths. My mummy says you shouldn't even be in a school with normal children - you should be in a zoo!" His head snapped to Wednesday, who smiled as she noticed a familiar gleam in his eye, one that promised fun.

"I think it's the prey that should be smarter when dealing with dangerous creatures, Emily." Wednesday turned her bone chilling smile to the girl. "See you soon."

"Wh-what?" Emily asked, confused and unnerved. She'd never seen Wednesday smiling before. What did that mean? She looked up to see Wednesday walking away with her hand in her brothers', looking as always as though nothing in the world could bother them.

* * *

Later that evening, the children were late arriving for potions class, but they were radiating joy like someone died and it was making Grandmamma a little nervous. Just as she was about to finally push them into telling what had happened at school, Morticia and Gomez came into the basement, looking utterly disappointed.

"Children!" Morticia called, waving a hand and placing their potions in stasis in order to have their full attention. "Is there something you'd like to share with your father and me?"

The children shared a gulp as they turned to face the music. How did their parents always know? Gomez sighed.

"Children, we just saw on the news that a number of your classmates," he indicated to Wednesday, "were found in the middle of a safari park 40 miles from your school."

"Maybe it was someone's birthday." Herido suggested. It wasn't a lie or anything. He hadn't asked the children for their birthdates when they'd left them in the lion enclosure. He heard Grandmamma start cackling behind him and had to use all his will to suppress his own smile. Wednesday looked as unaffected as ever. How did she do that?

"Oh children, how could you?" Morticia asked, looking rather cross. "Thankfully they were rescued before any fatal damage could occur." She looked cross, but still very disappointed. "I'm afraid this time you're to be punished. You simply can't be so thoughtless!" The children looked at each other, both a little taken aback. Wednesday gave the faintest of nods towards Morticia. Heri took a deep breath and tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"L'homme n'est point fait pour mediter, mais pour agir." (Man was not made to meditate, he was made to act). He said, hoping that his mother would reply to his cheek in French, because in an effort to become more fluent in languages it had become habit in the household to reply in whatever language was being used. She took the bait and didn't miss a beat before replying.

"Mais les grandes pensees viennent du coeur!" (But the greatest thoughts come from the heart).

"Oh Tish! That's French!" The children shared the briefest of glances in triumph as they waited to make their getaway. However when they turned back to see how far away their parents had gotten, they found them in the same place – Morticia's hand blocking the path that Gomez was making up her arm. She had a calculating look in her eye that the children didn't like one bit.

"Punishment first, Gomez. French later." He looked up and for a few seconds he stared at the children with something akin to pride. He realised what they had been doing all that time and he had to force his mouth into a straight line. This wasn't the time for praise after all.

"You're absolutely right, querida." He said taking a lit cigar from his breast pocket and puffing gently.

"But Father, we did it for the family honour! We…" Heri started but was cut off easily.

"That's all very well and good, but you didn't think your actions through. How do you think those poor lions felt, being fed those bright eyed children and then desperately attacked by their keepers?" Both children looked down. They actually hadn't thought of that. "Well?" Morticia pressed.

"We're sorry. We didn't think about the Kitties." The children replied in unison. The adults nodded at them and then to their devastation she continued:

"Now, as a punishment you will both be joining an after school club for the remainder of the school year. That's one month." Their mouths fell open in horror.

"That's cruel and unusual…"

"Punishment!" Gomez was the one to interrupt Wednesday this time. "Exactly. A little extra work to show you how pleasant you have it at home, and to hopefully make you think about the consequences of your actions next time." He said, but his voice held a lot less conviction than Morticia's, like he was just repeating an expected phrase and was about to take pity on them any second now. Morticia, wise wife and mother that she was, intervened before that could happen.

"Le travail eloigne de nous trois grands maux: l'ennui, le vice et le besoin." (Work delivers us from three great evils: boredom, vice and want). She gave the children a hard look as she spoke the words, but this time allowed Gomez to continue and led him from the room, leaving their defeated children to finish their potions.

Well, one thing was for sure: at least two after school clubs would be shut down this year!

* * *

 **A/N**

 **White robes at Mahoutokoro indicate a dark witch, so Wednesday wants to be acknowledged by the magic as dark, but then wants to find a way to beat the system and stay out of prison long enough to learn.**

 **Quote wars at the end of the chapter:**

 **Man was not made to meditate, he was made to act – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.**

 **The greatest thoughts come from the heart – Marquis de Vauvenargues.**

 **Work delivers us from three great evils: boredom, vice and want – Voltaire. xx**


	5. Chapter 5

Herido woke with a start and rolled out of bed just in time to avoid the axe. How on Earth had Grandmamma manged to make it past his locks, wards and booby-traps? He obviously still had a lot to learn.

He grabbed his machete from under the bed and slid hard to the right, whispering a word and sliding straight through the wall and down a dark tunnel. He knew someone would be waiting at the bottom, so he gathered his magic to his palm and waited. As soon as his feet knocked open the little exit he closed his eyes and pushed every bit of magic he could summon into a blinding light. He didn't have much control and couldn't do much with magic yet, but the shock of the bright light did succeed in briefly blinding uncle Fester for long enough for Herido to start running. When he glanced back to see the guillotine hanging over the place he'd exited, he realised he was damn lucky his uncle hadn't let go of that rope in shock! At least now he knew he couldn't use that escape again.

He heard a roar behind him and ducked down behind some tall, dying grass. He watched silently as Kitty Cat and Fang ran past, chased by Wednesday aiming a dragon throwing axe high above her head. He was shocked for a moment, until he noticed that Thing was riding Kitty Cat's mane, and was relieved to see his sister taking her time in aiming. Thing was wearing a knuckleduster that had curved nine inch blade.

As soon as she'd passed, he leapt out and lunged for her midsection, only to have his blade met with the edge of Wednesday's axe.

"Nice try." She looked less than impressed even as she spoke. Heri noticed a flash of metal in her other hand and quickly pushed her back and ran towards the cemetery for cover.

He ran quickly and paused behind the mausoleum to catch his breath, only to have his father flip down before him from the roof and call 'en guarde'. He managed to bring up his machete in time to block Gomez' sword and they fell into a short sword fight. As he rolled away from his father to get to a better angle of attack, he was distracted by the angry growling of the crocodiles and wondered idly who had fallen into the swamp.

He looked up to see his father standing over him, ready to swing down his sword, when he was saved by the distant sound of his mother calling everyone to breakfast. Gomez grinned.

"You've the Devil's luck, son." He said as he extended a hand to help Herido to his feet.

"Of course, I'm an Addams." He replied as he dusted himself off and began to walk back to the house, meeting up with the others along the way. His teachers moaned that he didn't try hard enough in physical education, but he'd argue that he got quite enough at home. As soon as he saw Wednesday he had to look away in an effort to hide his shock and amusement. It was Wednesday who'd fallen into the swamp! And judging by the smug smile, Pugsley was responsible! His brother was going to have to start sleeping with both eyes open.

This mad chase had been a pretty typical morning routine for going on a month now. It had started when Wednesday had heard someone on the TV saying the phrase 'the early bird catches the worm'. Add this to what she'd heard about worms – that if you cut one in half you got two juicy worms – and she'd decided to get up early to try and cut Herido in half. That morning they had ended up fighting with samurai swords in the yard. Fester had come upon them and declared that he should join in too, because he was an expert in cutting people in half, although he never had managed to successfully put them together again. All too quickly it had descended into a game that involved most of the household chasing each other around the yard trying to cut each other in half. Nobody had won so far, which was why they were still playing. Early Bird was a great game, but Heri imagined that everyone would get bored of the game before anyone _did_ win. It gave the cats a good morning run anyway and pet care was important in the Addams house.

* * *

This year, Herido had finally started to learn how to use magic. His accidental magic had saved his life more times than he could count, but he couldn't wait to have the ability to harness it at will, to know it was there when he needed it, instead of constantly living on a prayer.

He'd learnt so much already. At first he couldn't stop using it, constantly going around lighting and dowsing candles and levitating small objects (this was all he could do in the first two weeks), but Wednesday had become more and more jealous. She was absolutely furious that she couldn't learn yet. She still participated in the sacrifices to build up her power and understanding of her magic, as the children had done for years, but she was still too young to harness it without the risk of killing herself or losing her magic completely.

Heri had tried to curb his magical displays so as to not to rub it in, but she continued to seethe until finally she acted.

He'd momentarily forgotten all his physical training in favour of studying his magic and in a rare victory, Wednesday had him in iron chains, and at the bottom of the fish tank. He crawled like a worm to the edge of the tank. It was only because of the metal cuffs hitting the glass as he desperately tapped out an SOS in Morse Code that someone had heard his plea and he'd been rescued before he'd had to divert his magic from flaring out around him (to dissuade the piranhas from attacking), to trying to keep him alive without oxygen somehow. It had been quite the thrill.

Not long after, it became apparent that Wednesday had run away from home. She even took her spider, Homer, with her. The whole family was out looking for her all day, until eventually, he and uncle Fester had found her in the Police Station, where she said she was more than happy to come home. Apparently, the policeman had threated to send her to a social worker, who would sing and tell her fairy tales and all sorts of dreadful things.

Since then she'd stopped complaining, but Heri noticed that her eyes still narrowed slightly every time he used his magic. Often he was using it just to set her off.

* * *

The Addams house was constantly playing host to someone or other, both muggle and wizard. Many of them left the house in fright. There were a lot of strange people in the world, but muggles in particular seemed to get upset over the smallest things. There were some wizards who acted ridiculous too, such as one he'd seen throw up a hasty shield when his mother had simply offered the man a cup of henbane. And, of course, it was always amusing when a muggle and a wizard visited on the same day, as every other wizard Heri knew avoided muggles like the plague (an odd expression in itself). Gomez and Morticia had been threatened for years to stop associating with muggles and Gomez had been in court several times to defend his children going to a muggle school. In the end though, the authorities had given up and let it go, as there was no evidence of any breach in the Statue of Secrecy and nobody wanted to seriously anger a family as powerful as House Addams even as they continued to blatantly ignore Rappaport's Law.

Regardless, the family were always developing new interests and hobbies that required outside assistance and his parents often had people coming to seek financial or political support.

Gomez often gave money to various political causes, but never really got involved personally. The closest he'd got was when Mr Horne had come to visit.

The Hornes were a prominent political family and Mr Horne was very high up in the Magical Congress of the United States of America, many would say he was the man who had the President's ear.

The man had come to try and convince Gomez to start using some of his considerable political sway in Congress. It seemed that the government was starting to lose support and if they wanted to accomplish half of what they'd set out to, they needed Gomez backing.

It was a task doomed to failure.

"I beg you to see reason, Lord Addams. We stand at a critical time in our history. Your actions now could affect our great country for generations to come!" The man looked very sincere and knowledgeable in his impeccable business robes and sharp politician haircut. Sharp hazel eyes bored into Gomez', but it was all in vain.

"All the more reason not to get involved." Gomez declared with a wide smile that Mr Horne was beginning to find aggravating.

"But it would be so easy for you to…" Gomez held up a hand to cut the man off. They had been taking a while now. Mr Horne was wonderfully tenacious.

"I'm sorry old man. Not only am I not interested in claiming any power I may have, but working in government would take me away from home. My heart is already shattered, what with Pugsley away for most of the year, I couldn't lose out on the time I have left with my younger two!" Mr Horne bit back a snarky retort and instead tried to bargain:

"I'm sure they wouldn't even notice you were gone. You could come home when they come home from school…" Both Addams parents turned sharp eyes to him, and he felt the temperature of the room drop. Or was that just his blood? He swallowed the lie and amended quickly: "I mean, I'm sure we could make a special effort to have you home by three every day." He fought the urge to gulp. It didn't really make sense for him to feel so nervous about lying to the Addams', but he did. He tried to shake off the feeling, as it truly was ridiculous, but he couldn't deny the relief he felt when Morticia spoke up.

"Maybe he's right, Gomez. You could just walk out of the office when it was time to come home and leave them to their chattering."

"Ah but querida," Gomez turned adoring eyes to her and gently took her hand in his as though it were some sacred thing, "how could I leave you every day. To spend so many hours away from you, day after day… why Tish, it would reduce me to a very beast of a man. To be denied your beauty would be torture. To not hear your voice would drive me to madness…" Morticia smiled and stroked his cheek. "Cara Mia." He whispered.

"Mon Cher." She returned and Mr Horne buried the distaste he felt at such a public display and simply turned away, trying his best to ignore the sounds of such passionate kissing. Maybe it would be best to just lose the next election. He also couldn't stop thinking that maybe Gomez had a point when he said that life at Congress would be boring. It certainly seemed he had more interesting things to do here.

He let out a minute sigh as the Addams' attention returned to him. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

In May, the children went to school only to be greeted with shocking news. They were being made to perform in the end of year production! They had gotten away with not participating for years now, but the principal was putting her foot down and saying they would have to perform or fail the year.

Herido was casually strolling around back stage as they prepared for the auditions – which he and Wednesday could skip – when he heard a familiar voice. That little girl, Emily, from Wednesday's class if he wasn't mistaken.

It seemed she had regained a little bravado over the last year. He stopped to listen.

"…can't believe they are performing. I mean, what are they going to do? Bite off a bat's head? She's just trying to steal all the attention for herself! Or maybe this is practice for the freak show! She…" Her words faded as she finally noticed Heri watching. The girl paled instantly and swallowed loudly, but otherwise tried to stay bold. He gave her a sly smile as she raised a shaky chin in defiance, before turning and walking out at a pace that was too slow, as though she was overcompensating for the fact that she was forcing herself not to run. Heri wondered how many seconds it would take for her to realise that if she wanted to audition she'd have to come back, and how many more minutes it would take her to gather the courage to do so.

When the time came, it turned out that participating in the show wasn't too bad. He and Wednesday had colluded to perform their own unique version of Hamlet which had left the first three rows soaked in what the audience hoped was stage blood. The Addams never did anything by half.

It was clear to see who out of all the parents attending had had dealings with the Addams family before and who hadn't. Those that hadn't looked at the family with rude, judging eyes and disgusted scowls, or else were overly friendly and unassuming in chatting to them. Those who knew the family were also split into two groups. The first group stayed as far away from them as they could, trying to avoid eye contact or pretending not to hear if one of the family called them over. The other, much smaller group, consisted mostly of Gomez' business associates, who all made an effort to be polite.

Heri watched graciously as Emily took to the stage in her tutu. He'd heard her saying that she was going to be a ballerina when she grew up. He knew that a lot of girls made that claim and that very few were able to achieve it. Even so, knowing that it was something she cared about was enough.

As the dance began to wind up, he took Wednesday's hand and gave her an evil smile, and she watched as his whole face seemed to darken as he looked back to the stage.

Everything seemed to happen so quickly, Emily landed wrong and twisted her ankle, falling to the floor with a moan. As she held the injured joint, one of the stage lights came crashing down from above at an angle altogether uncanny and slammed straight into her other, unguarded ankle. She let out a horrific screech as the curtains closed and the staff rushed to help.

The ankle was surely crushed. Emily would never dance again.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Nine year old Heri is becoming a little vindictive. Ah well, children will be children!**

 **I guess America doesn't have Lords and such, but in my story all the oldest wizarding families in America kept the titles when they immigrated.**

 **Also, I felt bad for stealing Pugsley's place in the school production, so gave him a rare one-up on Wednesday. I just had to add another scene of crazy Addams silliness, as there will only be one more chapter until things start to get a little more serious at Hogwarts.**

 **xx**


	6. Chapter 6

It turned out that the children's actions at the end of year production was one… prank… too many. Two teachers had seen Wednesday and Herido sneaking around on the bridge only hours before the show and decided that they had done something to the lighting, and therefore were responsible for Emily's accident. This of course was completely true – they had loosened one of the lighting units before the show. Heri could still only do so much with his magic after all. But he thought that the evidence against them was circumstantial at best and that the teachers were simply looking for an excuse to get rid of them. They had found it, and both Addams children were expelled 3 weeks before the end of term. He had the feeling that his parents couldn't decide whether they were pleased that they'd been expelled or cross that they had been so obviously caught.

Regardless, the whole saga had given the family an opportunity to start their summer vacation early.

This year Gomez had decided to buy a yacht and partake in an African cruise, but after a whole solid 10 minutes of hounding from the children, he'd agreed to buy a caravel that was small enough to be sailed with just the small crew they would acquire, complete with their own Jolly Roger. If the children wanted to be pirates, what harm could it do to humour them?

By the time Pugsley joined them in Egypt, they had gone through being hijacked twice and four international incidents. It was turning out to be one of their better vacations.

Egypt was predicted to have constant sun and temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius, but the day after the Addams family arrived, a strange storm came from seemingly nowhere, casting the whole country in chilly shadows under constantly grey skies.

They'd had to cheat a little to get the ship onto the Nile, but the whole family was excited about visiting this county. Each of them simply couldn't wait to go curse hunting and see if they could unleash any new plagues, never mind meeting some of the Pharaohs of old. They'd heard that the mummies could return to life, and even if they couldn't they could always hold a séance over them.

The quest didn't start off very well. They visited the tomb of Pennout and when they arrived and saw the cursed inscription 'he will be miserable and persecuted' they were all a little disappointed – that was hardly a deterrent!

They decided to take the next mummy they found to see what would happen. They had found a small humble crypt, but the fact that the body had been mummified must have meant something. As soon as they brought the mummy on board, they had all been haunted by the most wretched and awful dreams. Three of their crew had gone mad and jumped ship - literally. The Addams' knew it would make a wonderful addition to their rare objects collection back home.

They took turns handling cursed objects, but as most hadn't been properly maintained and were so old, they weren't powerful enough against the ingrained defensive magic of an Addams. A small statue of Osiris had managed to paralyse uncle Fester for almost 4 days, and they all thought cousin Itt was dead for weeks. It was only after they arrived back home that he'd woken up, unfortunately before his funeral.

They decided to move further south and ended up on an impromptu ghost tour of South Africa. They picked up a lovely young woman called Maria along a road on the Eastern Cape. It seemed death had robbed her of a substantial amount of sanity, but she was pleasant company for a few miles.

They stayed at several old jails, spending nights in the dark, damp cells where they came across a surprising number of distant relatives. They stayed at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, where the ghost of Lady Anne Barnard was a perfect hostess and even the executed convicts were cordial.

Their absolute favourite place was the Lord Milner Hotel. Ghosts came from all over town to throw the Addams Family a huge party. The party lasted for two days and left the children pretty confident that even if they were trapped in this world, death would be fun. It had taken the owners of the hotel – who were well used to paranormal occurrences – a week before they dared to return.

* * *

Once the fun and games were over, the family had a problem to deal with: Herido and Wednesday were expelled and their parents were finding it difficult to find another public school that would take them. Pugsley had already attended and been expelled from most schools in the area, and the others had been warned about the Addams children. They all had an excuse as to why they couldn't attend.

They were getting desperate, but both Morticia and Gomez agreed that even though they would never dare to deny children from the Addams family, a Wizarding school was simply out of the question: Wednesday was still far too young to be exposed to the magical theory taught there and they wouldn't want to risk that it might disrupt or mutate her core, leaving her with a weakened ability to harness True magic. And of course their children would not put up with being separated before they had to be.

This had led to a more creative solution. Gomez ended up buying a prestigious, old private school (and hadn't that been a week from hell! So many threats, deals and an obscene amount of money changing hands). Morticia had realised that this gave them an opportunity to help the community at large, as well as their children. She had immediately cut the staffing levels by a third and halved the money being spent on each child's education, leading to overcrowded classrooms and a drastic decline in the quality of materials, facilities and opportunities available.

It was all together a much more rounded and realistic education and she imagined that once the sheltered little ones had developed a little character, they would be immensely grateful.

The school year ended up being as humdrum as ever, but the children had been more than happy to help run their new school into the ground.

Of course, during the first month or two, their classmates had to be put in their place, that was, they had become acquainted with the Addams children and after a sprinkling of broken bones and late on-set bed-wetting, they all gave them a rather wide berth.

The school did have some very interesting clubs, such as gymnastics and fencing. Morticia had been worried that her children were taking such an interest in extracurricular activities, but was relieved that it only took three weeks before both were asked to leave the clubs. The teachers were insistent that the reason they couldn't attend was that they were simply too advanced for the other students and had absolutely nothing to do with the endless list of injured.

Heri continued to grow a bit of a vindictive streak. More and more he was beginning to view the other children as play things for him and Wednesday. They were so fragile and ignorant of the world around them. He was even starting to play with the teachers. One science teacher had tried to give him detention for not completing the assigned project. In the past Heri would have been happy to simply suffer his punishment with no comment, however this time he decided to give the man a dressing down, highlighting to him that his lessons were infantile and he should be ashamed that this is what his life's work had amounted to, if not disgusted. By the time he was done, the teacher was scowling only in an effort to hold back the tears. The next day Herido had turned up to the detention, to the surprise of his teacher and sat silently reading for the whole hour. The teacher never saw him slip a vial of potion into his drink, nor did he notice the sinister smile on Herido's face as he watched him drink. The potion was an old recipe of Grandmamma's and would cause a person's most crippling doubts and insecurities to intensify. How a person dealt with these was up to them, but it turned out that Mr Harris did not have the confidence and fortitude to withstand the torture of his own mind, and had been hospitalised a week later. Unfortunately for the children, it turned out that Mr Harris had actually been quite a good teacher, and his replacement didn't last the school term. Nor did the science lab.

Heri could admit when he was wrong and he had been wrong about Mr Harris. He was definitely the best of a woefully bad, incompetent bunch. He spent a considerable amount of the school year working on convincing Grandmamma to fix the former teacher's mind and hatching a scheme that would see him return to the school. It wasn't that he felt at all bad about what had happened, he simply wanted to leave Wednesday a teacher that at least had the potential to help with her intellectual development. A nice side effect from the whole affair was that Mr Harris would never be completely well and had a subconscious fear of the Addams children – something that Wednesday could have fun with next year.

All of this lead to Gomez having to take his son aside and caution him about the way he treated the muggles. Gomez was overjoyed that Heri had taken to playing with them so, but the child had to learn to be subtler and not to throw around his power. Both muggle and wizard were fair game to an Addams, but it didn't do to be so obvious. It was inelegant, never mind the fact that Gomez had had to obliviate half the school this year, something that had never happened before, in order to prevent a serious breach of the Statue of Secrecy. He was glad that Wednesday seemed to be so much cleverer in her ways now that she too had begun to practise her magic. Either way, Herido had learned his lesson, and although odd things continued to happen around him, he went back to just being a strange, weird, creepy, unnerving outcast.

* * *

As soon as school was done with for the year, Heri had taken Wednesday and Pugsley on a trip to a Theme Park. He'd heard the children at school taking about how terrifying they were and thought it would be a nice treat. It had been too long since he'd been able to scare Wednesday and he felt bad that she would be left alone this upcoming school year.

The three children had decided to visit a Theme Park in England called Alton Towers, as they had heard of the hauntings and curses contained within the grounds, a tree in chains and a wonderful graveyard with ghosts that liked to cause accidents! The Towers themselves also hadn't disappointed. Herido felt his breath catch in his throat the first time he looked up at the beautifully gothic building. This felt like a home from home. They decided right away that they would be staying the night, hopefully in one of the mansions less commercial, less airy, less… open to the public rooms.

First though, they did the rounds within the park. All the children reluctantly admitted that some of the rides had given them a pleasant tingle and adrenaline spike. Heri could definitely see the attraction, but he felt it had more to do with that fact that he was riding machines at over a 100km/h with two evil creatures that could release the harnesses at any second, something that all three siblings had threatened to do. Heri thought that if they were all to be completely honest they would admit it was actually a wicked thrill. At the very least, when Wednesday had given him _that_ smile before the drop on _Oblivion_ his blood had run cold for just a second. His heart hadn't beat that fast since Pugsley had left him in the middle of Werewolf territory on a full moon when he was eight.

By the time they made it back to the Towers, it was dark, but they were still greeted in the entrance hall by two ghosts; a Lady in a dark dress who claimed to be a governess and welcomed them, and a rather rotund man who seemed furious at something, but contained his ire after he felt the warning swell of dark magic that Pugsley send out.

As a small group of guests made their way into the hall from a side room, the larger man disappeared with a huff, but the lady stayed and agreed to show them to a room.

As they were about to leave, Wednesday noticed a young blonde girl watching them with poorly disguised fear. She diverted their path and the siblings went to greet the girl as the governess promised to wait in the next room for them.

The blonde paled a little as they approached and reached a hand back to the man behind her, who hadn't stopped talking to his colleague since they'd arrived.

"Father…" She began, but was hurriedly hushed.

"Not now, Da…" He had turned to her and now noticed, to his displeasure, the three odd looking children with straight faces in front of him. He sighed to himself. "I suppose this is what you get for agreeing to do business in muggle grounds!" He rubbed his face and was about to usher his daughter away, when he noticed that something was… off… about these children. The oldest had broken out into what at first glance seemed to be a friendly smile, the boy that looked to be about the same age as his daughter had the smallest smirk pulling at his lips and the young girl's face had remained solid as stone, but her eyes were promising pain. He glanced down to find that their black clothes were impeccable, as was their hair. Had they not just come in from a day out in the park?

He almost stepped back as the eldest boy took a step towards him with a raised hand.

"Muggles, Lord Greengrass? Not at all. I am Pugsley Addams and this is my fascinating brother, Herido and my darling sister, Wednesday." Heri's smirk grew as he watched the man pale dramatically.

The mind of the Greengrass Lord was working a mile a minute. He had NOT expected to run into an Addams here of all places. And to make matters worse, he'd just insulted them! But they just had to be from _those_ Addams'. From the way they held themselves to that sensation they gave him all screamed at him that these were from a powerful family. Add to that their American accent and knowledge of English Nobility and he suddenly felt as though he had just been found in the Addams' home without invitation and… 'stop!' he thought. Yes, the Addams family was powerful and the rumours about them… but these were just children, it's the adults he needed to be wary of and this could actually turn into a wonderful opportunity.

He quickly cleared his throat and shook Pugsley's hand.

"How do you do Mister Addams? This is my business associate, Mr Plume and my daughter, Daphne."

"How do you do?" Daphne's answer came reflexively and it was good to know that all her Pure Blood training and etiquette didn't fail her. She had been unnerved to see three children talking to those ghosts and she hadn't missed her own father's shock when they'd revealed their name. Although she was a little confused about that, because she didn't know of any Addams'.

"Are you staying here with your parents?" The elder Greengrass asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Unfortunately not, sir." Pugsley replied. "We are just here for a treat to start summer."

"I see. Well, I do hope you enjoy your visit. Say," His eyes flickered to his daughter and back again. "I don't suppose you'd like to spend an hour or so with my Daphne? Maybe show her around? She gets so dreadfully bored when I drag her to business meetings, you see?" Wednesday's eyes narrowed just a little.

"Then maybe you should leave her at home, but we'd be happy to get to know your daughter better, Lord Greengrass." The way Wednesday spoke made him reconsider this plan, but he was committed now.

"That would be wonderful. Daphne, a brief word before you go?" He led his daughter a little further away and whispered quickly. "Daphne, if you can get on friendly terms with these children it could be a real coup for our family." He could see the questions starting to bubble up from his daughter and held up a hand. "I will explain later, you just need to know that their family is very well respected and their parents are very powerful and if you could introduce our families it could only bring prosperity." He gave her shoulder a small squeeze and led her back, making his apologies for leaving with his colleague and promising to be back for Daphne in about an hour.

It wasn't an hour. It was closer to twelve.

After she'd received her mission, Daphne slid into her Heiress persona with well-practised ease. She greeted the three dark siblings once again as they began to make their way down a long corridor.

"I was a little surprised to see you talking to the ghosts here. From what I've heard they can be quite violent." She tried to make light conversation to cover how uneasy this had made her when she'd first seen it. A voice ahead of them made her look up.

"Maybe that great oaf, but rest assured that you'll find me most accommodating." Daphne looked at the dark haired ghost and tried a charming smile.

The governess showed the children around for a while, telling some of the more gruesome stories she knew about the house and by the time they reached a bedroom, Daphne was shivering a little. She hadn't even thought about how long they'd been walking and sat chatting and getting to know the Addams children. It was only after they'd finished an unusual meal that she realised it must be getting late.

"Wait, what time is it?" She asked suddenly. After hearing it was gone eleven she felt awful. Why hadn't her dad come for her? Was she supposed to go back downstairs? Was she in trouble? Was her dad alright? "I, I should be going then. Father will be looking for me."

As she got up to leave, Wednesday's icy voice made her blood run cold.

"He can't find you here. No one can."

Heri threw his sister a smile and answered Daphne's stuttering questions.

"This is one of those places that cannot be found unless you already know where it is. And we don't know the way back until the governess returns." Heri sounded like he was enjoying telling her this information immensely. Daphne felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under her. It had been a pleasant enough, if not a little odd, evening, but now it was starting to feel like a nightmare.

"No. But, how can this place be so, this room is pristine, and where did the food… What if she doesn't come back?" She shook her head and took a breath. "My father is going to be so worried."

"That's what house elves are for!" Pugsley declared happily as he tossed and caught a banana and then sat down to peel it. Daphne spun her attention to Wednesday as she heard her answer the next question.

"And she'll come back when we told her to." That sinister smile on the little girl's lips was more unsettling than anything else.

"I wouldn't worry about your father." She finally turned to Herido, whose own small smile wasn't making her feel any better. "He is a little distracted at the moment. Lost in the mansion, I imagine. But its ok, the governess and late Earl are keeping him company."

Daphne fell into a seat. What was happening? Why was this happening? Was she really trapped here? Was her father in trouble?

"We don't appreciate being called muggles." She looked at Herido again to see his face break into a malicious smirk. Was he saying that this was all some punishment because her father had offended them? That was ridiculous. Besides, they were just children! And she had been with them since they met, they couldn't have arranged something like this!

"Let's play a game to pass the time. She's not coming back until morning." Pugsley suggested, as though nothing had changed in the last few minutes and Daphne wasn't filled with dread about her dad being hunted by violent ghosts and spending a night in this creepy place.

In the end nothing too awful happened that night. She ended up with a few minor cuts and scrapes from the lively games, and was completely weirded out by the dead silence in the room as the siblings slept. It was the waiting and suspense that really got to her. Constantly waiting for something to happen; only nothing did. How could nothing(!) be so scary? She was a bundle of nerves in the morning and it took every bit of her upbringing to stop her crying out when she was led back to her father. He looked like he'd been fighting trolls all night and simply nodded to Pugsley when the child wished them a good day.

Herido shook his head as he watched them leave.

"She was an odd one." He said. His siblings agreed.

"We didn't even do anything to her." Wednesday almost sounded put out about this.

"She must have an anxiety disorder." Pugsley suggested, and they all nodded in agreement.

* * *

It was only a few days after the trip to England that Heri noticed something change in his Horcrux. He'd _felt_ it. At first there was just a sharp feeling, like a scratch behind his scar, but then it had exploded into a thousand hot needles gently prickling his mind like a low dose of electricity. It had been wonderful. In that moment, the essence of the Horcrux had been gleeful – maniacally so, and the dark joy and powerful conviction had seeped out into Heri. He was walking on air for days after it had worn off. Something had changed. For the first time, he knew that Voldemort was active and actually doing something. He just wished he knew what!

* * *

 **That's all for this part of the story! I hope you enjoyed reading 'Harry's' decent into darkness heehee. Part 2 is now up!**

 **This chapter was quite heavy on the muggle bashing, but that was mostly just because up until this point Heri has had more exposure to them. I hope by the end it was obvious that they didn't like to be looked down on by wizard or muggle. They aren't muggle champions by any stretch of the imagination, but they also don't discriminate.**

 **Thank you all for reading and for all the wonderful reviews!**

 **xx**


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